Nearly half of IBM's $1bn Aussie framework deal comes from mainframes

Plenty of work for the Z14 plumbers Down Under

An IBM Z14 mainframe, as used for some of the Australian public sector frameworks

IBM has scored itself a AU$481m ($357m, £277m) mainframe contract with the Australian Department of Human Services. The revelation that half of a larger mega-deal rests solely on mainframes sheds more light on what's holding up Big Blue's financial position.

IBM loses mainframe docs down the back of the web, customers cry 'sabotage'

The five-year hardware lease deal will bring the total value of IBM's Aussie gov contracts to AU$2bn, according to a local report, though IBM appears to have only inked $1bn ($742k, £575k) worth of framework contracts so far.

Well-known mainframes such as the Z14 form the core of IBM's public-sector contracts in Australia, we are told. Bernstein analyst Tony Sacconaghi commented in July that "100 per cent" of the chunk of IBM's reported sales that beat his predictions came from mainframes, unsurprising when one looks at deals like this one.

Nonetheless, in commenting on its results at the time, IBM admitted that "outside of mainframe, revenues were in line to lower than we had modelled".